Turn it Up: Turner Twins Book 2 by Vivian Arend

She wants it. He’s got it…and a whole lot more.


Maxwell Turner considers his stubborn and resourceful attitude a plus. After all, it usually gets him what he wants—except for Natasha Bellingham. The long-time family friend may be ten years older than he, but so what? He’s plenty old enough to know they belong together. Now all he has to do is convince her.


Over the past few years Natasha’s love life has degenerated into a series of bad clichés. Her biological clock is ticking—loudly. As a proven architect with her own house-design company, she’s financially ready for a baby. Who says she needs a permanent man in her life for that? She just needs a “donation”.


When Max discovers Natasha’s future plans include artificial insemination, he’s outraged. She wants to get pregnant? No problem. He’s more than willing to volunteer—no turkey basters involved.


But there’s one non-negotiable clause: He wants forever. And he intends to do everything in his power—fair and unfair—to make it happen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Older woman/younger man is one of my least favorite tropes. In general, I hate it with a thousand passions. Because the woman is always freaking out about how the man is too young for her. Ugh.

So, worried as I was, I was thrilled to see that that wasn't the case with Turn It Up. Tasha had issues, oh yes she did, but they stemmed from abandonment issues rather than age issues. And it thrilled me to see that she consciously tried to open herself up to Max. Usually the women are trying to come up with excuses to keep themselves closed off, and while she did a tiny bit of that, more often she was convincing herself to let him in, to open up, to experience life with him.

And Max. Ahhh, what a gem he was. Smart, funny, workaholic but willing to make time for his woman, and hot. Believe me, he had to be super hot if I could overcome the name Max. Totally committed to Tasha and their baby and their life together. And so patient, too.

If you've ever been pregnant, you appreciate the accuracy of the descriptions and feelings of being pregnant described. The push and pull of a schizophrenic sex drive - there one minute and soooo not there the next. Of nesting. Of awkward positions in sex. And I loved the scene where they had the ultrasound, and while wanting so badly to share the warm fuzzies with Max, Tasha simply said hang on and ran off to pee.

To me, it was very odd that this book came 2nd in the series, as it takes place before book 1 and also serves to put Maxy's (max's sister - don't ask) innocence and situation into some perspective. Still, if I hadn't read book 1 first, I never would have had any issues. I highly recommend reading these two books out of order. I liked them both, but this one especially.